Two people have been indicted in federal court in Little Rock in a national scam in which callers claim to represent the IRS and demand immediate payment of tax debts.
In an April 5 news release, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge warned Arkansans about the scam, citing a large number of calls her office had received from people saying the callers threatened arrest if payment wasn't received.
Rutledge said con artists were using robocalls to reach as many consumers as possible, and she advised recipients of such calls to hang up without disclosing any personal information.
"The IRS is never going to call you unsolicited," Rutledge said, reminding Arkansans that "the IRS will never call and demand payment, require taxes to be paid in a certain way, ask for credit or debit card numbers, or threaten to bring police or other agencies to make an arrest for unpaid taxes."
In an indictment handed up Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Little Rock, Dennis Delgado Cabellero and Jeniffer Valerino Nunez, whose ages and hometowns weren't immediately available, each face a charge of conspiring to obtain money by false and fraudulent pretenses, as well as 21 fraud counts.
The indictment says Cabellero and Nunez, along with others, carried out the scheme in Arkansas from August until May 23.
Through the conspiracy, taxpayers across the country received calls from phony IRS representatives who falsely claimed the taxpayer had an outstanding tax debt and then used "various methods of intimidation and threats" to persuade the taxpayer to go to a nearby location to wire money, the indictment says.
It says the callers instructed taxpayers to send a specific amount of money to a specific IRS "employee" in another state, using MoneyGram or Walmart-2-Walmart wire services. Both services are available in Wal-Mart stores across the country, while MoneyGram is available in other locations as well.
The indictment says Cabellero and Nunez used fictitious employee names to collect the money.
"Cabellero and Nunez have travelled together to multiple states including Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Arkansas and Washington, D.C., to collect money wired by unsuspecting taxpayers," according to the five-page indictment.
It added, "Caballero and Nunez, using approximately 31 different false identities, received money totaling over $2 million from approximately 1,000 taxpayers."
The indictment notes that there were about 94 separate wire transfers from taxpayers outside Arkansas to cities inside the state's Eastern District, which is made up of 41 counties. It says those wire transfers totaled about $120,000.
The Arkansas locations where the money was picked up are listed next to each specific count, along with the date it was sent, the amount of money sent and the location the money was wired from.
The Arkansas cities where thieves picked up the cash include Dardanelle, Morrilton, Russellville, Batesville, Beebe, Cabot, Heber Springs, Jacksonville, Little Rock, North Little Rock, Newport, Searcy, Sherwood, Benton, Bryant, Clinton, Conway, Damascus, Greenbrier, Maumelle and Lonoke.
Those wires originated in places such as Redondo Beach, Calif.; Farmingdale, N.Y.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Park City, Utah; Erie, Pa.; Madison Heights, Mich.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; and Overland Park, Kan.
According to the indictment, MoneyGram allows individuals to wire up to $20,000 on one day from one location. The Walmart-2-Walmart service allows customers to wire up to $900 at a time.
In the April news release, Rutledge said the IRS encourages anyone with questions about owed taxes to call the IRS directly at (800) 829-1040.
The IRS also recommends that recipients of such calls contact the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at (800) 366-4484 to report the call, and to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.
Metro on 06/11/2016